"When in the course of human events...," government gets too
uppity, the people have to jerk the reins, hold tight, and bring the wayward
creature under control.

During the Clinton/Gore era, agencies of our federal government were
infiltrated by former executives and operatives from some of our most
extreme environmental organizations. Bruce Babbitt, former head of the
League of Conservation Voters, took control of the Department of Interior,
and promptly hired Reed F. Noss as a special consultant.

Noss

Noss is the primary author of the Wildlands
Project, the extremist's plan to transform "at least half"
of the U.S. land area to core wilderness, off limits to humans, connected
by corridors, and surrounded by government-managed buffer zones.

George Frampton, former head of the Wilderness Society, headed the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service for a time. The Wilderness Society advocated
the nationalization of all forests back in the 1930s, and has worked continuously
to promote policies to achieve this goal.

More than 20 leaders of environmental extremist organizations held key
positions in the Clinton/Gore administrations, and they hired their favorite
activists to fill many of the middle-management and field positions in
each agency.

While most of the top agency people were replaced - when the people jerked
the reins of government by electing George W. Bush - not all of the underlings
have been rooted out and replaced. Many are still advancing the extreme
green agenda at every opportunity inside the government, while their extremely
green organizations promote the agenda on the outside.

For example, The Nature Conservancy and the Audubon Society provided
substantial funding to Reed Noss to write the Wildlands Project plan,
published in 1992. During the last five years of the Clinton/Gore era,
TNC received grants from the federal government totaling $102,846,284,
and the Audubon Society received $10,458,184 - much of which was expressly
for use in Florida for wilderness and wildlife "restoration"
projects - consistent with the aims of the Wildlands Project.

These "restoration" projects are planned by so-called "stakeholder"
councils, which consist primarily of employees of environmental organizations
and employees of federal, state, and local government. The people - land
owners and business people - are at work, and rarely have the opportunity,
or the time, to devote to the process.

Not until the result of the process is announced, and the landowners
begin to discover the consequences of these restoration plans, do they
get involved. They have to get involved, because, often, they discover
that these professionals have made decisions that affect their property
and their lives.

Such is the case in South Florida. For years, government-paid officials,
and government-paid environmental groups have been meeting and planning
the fate of thousands of landowners, many of who had no idea the meetings
were even underway. Now, the consequences of the planning threatens to
flood thousands of acres, displace thousands of people, and destroy the
investments and dreams of land owners across the state.

Of course the Wildlands Project clearly states that the "...needs
of non-human species must take precedence over the needs and desires of
humans...."

The humans who own the land and live in South Florida may have something
to say about this. They have formed the Sawgrass
Rebellion, a coalition of organizations in South Florida, joined by
other grassroots organizations around the country, who are standing together
to once again, jerk the reins of government, to hold tight, and bring
government back under control of the people.

The people who own the land have a different vision of how their land
should be used. They are the real stewards of their own land. They don't
want others telling them where and how they should live. They are not
alone. People in California, in the Klamath Basin, in New York, in Nevada,
in Pennsylvania, and all across the country, are experiencing similar
constraints on the use of private property.

Government-paid officials, supported by government-paid environmental
organizations are moving to "restore" wilderness everywhere,
to connect the wilderness areas with corridors, sometimes called "greenways."
Buffer zones along stream banks, and viewsheds along highways, "heritage"
corridors, "open space," and critical habitat for questionably
listed "endangered" species - are all devices used to force
people into compliance with the vision of the Wildlands Project.

It's high time the people jerk the reins of government again, and say
loud and clear that the needs and desires of humans must take priority
over the utopian vision of American wilderness.